Maundy Thursday, 2010

Topical

The Rev. Jerry Kistler

St. Stephen’s Reformed Episcopal Church

Montrose, Colorado

“Cleansed, Communed, Commanded”

Three acts. The drama in the upper room that first Maundy Thursday played out in three distinct acts, three powerfully evocative actions of Jesus Christ towards His disciples before He was betrayed and arrested, and taken away to die. He knelt down and washed His disciples’ feet. He blessed bread and wine and gave them His Holy Supper. And He spoke to them and charged them to keep His New Commandment.

Cleansed, Communed, and Commanded: that’s what that first Maundy Thursday was all about. It was a dramatic night, and we’ve participated in some of that drama tonight, and we’re going to participate in some more of it in just few minutes. But in those three acts, Jesus did for His disciples three things that sort of epitomize what it means to be His disciples—three actions that in a very real sense summarize the way we’re made and the way we’re sustained as Christians. We’ve got to be cleansed. We’ve got to be communed. And we’ve got to live out His commandment.

John chapter 13 says that during supper Jesus rose and laid aside his garments, girded Himself, and began to wash His disciples’ feet. This was probably before the actual eating began, since this seems to have been the custom of the time. It also seems that it was this custom that caused the debate among the disciples over which of them was the greatest. If all of them were the greatest, which of them would be the least and wash the others’ feet? None volunteered. Jesus, seeing this, put Himself in the place of the least and began to wash their feet. You see, it wasn’t proper for them to come to His Table with dirty feet.

But when He came to the feet of Peter, Peter objected with an affected humility, “You shall never wash my feet!” But to this Jesus answered, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

“If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” You see, we have to be washed by Jesus to have any part with Him. We have to receive His cleansing to be His disciples and have a life with Him. So Peter said, “Then don’t just wash my feet, but wash my hands and head as well. Wash all of me!” But then Jesus responded with this somewhat cryptic remark: “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean.”

Well, if it’s only by being washed by Jesus that they had any part with Him, and if at this point they’d already “taken a bath” and been made perfectly clean, except for their feet, when did Jesus wash them? When did He cleanse them? When did He give them a bath? I’d say the answer is found in John 4:1-2. It says there that “the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (through Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples).” Now if the disciples—the twelve—were baptizing others in the name and stead of Christ and making disciples to Him, doesn’t it make sense that they too would have been baptized? Doesn’t it make sense that they too would have received His cleansing to be made His disciples? And who would have baptized them if not for Jesus Christ Himself?

You see, it was in our baptism that we were washed by Jesus and made completely clean. We’ve taken our bath. In a spiritual sense, we never have to take a bath again (please, don’t misapply that!). We’ve received in baptism what the Scripture calls “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Tit. 3:5), without which we have no part with Christ.

St Paul asks the Corinthian Christians, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?....Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” He’s talking about their baptism.

You see, we’ve received our definitive cleansing in our baptism, because baptism makes us one with Christ—one with His death and one with His resurrection. His death causes a death in us—a death to sin—and his resurrection causes a resurrection in us—a new birth unto righteousness. And it’s by this cleansing that we now have access to Him in His Holy Supper. The Cleansing of Baptism opens up to us the way of communing with the Body and Blood of Christ.

But still, we l should not come to His Table with dirty feet. Jesus says, “Those who have bathed need only to wash their feet.” Well, what do our feet represent? Our feet represent our connection with this world. Our feet represent the places we go and the things we do. Our feet represent our deeds. And it’s there—in the place of our dirty deeds—that we must continually be cleansed by Jesus, especially as we would seek to come worthily to His Table, as we are called in Scripture.

And how do we do that? How do we continually receive the cleansing of our dirty feet, our dirty deeds? In the Confession and Absolution. You see, in the confession we bare our dirty feet to Jesus, and in the absolution He touches them with His cleansing and purifying hands. He touches you through my hands, the same hands that washed your feet tonight.

You know, you’ve got to think about how dirty Jesus’ disciples’ feet really were. People in that day wore sandals, and they walked through streets that doubled as sewers and latrines. Peoples’ feet were crusted over with dirt and grim, were smelly and repulsive, and were often diseased and covered in sores. That Jesus would stoop down and touch and wash those feet—those stinking, crusty, repulsive feet of His disciples—shows us that He is willing to touch us in our most dirty places. There are no unclean places in our lives, no dark and dirty corners of our hearts, no filthy habits or addictions that are just too awful even for Jesus to touch. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). That’s the faith we have to have to be able to bare our dirty feet to Jesus in the confession and receive His cleansing in the absolution.

But what a privilege we have when we do receive His absolution. We have the right to come to His Table and feed on Him. That night He said, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” But He also said at an earlier time, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (Jn. 6:53). And, you see, that’s what He’s given us the means to do—to eat His body and drink His blood— through His Holy Supper. “For in the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take eat; this is My body which is given for you.” It was in His body that He died our death and was raised to give us life. So He gives us the bread to make us one with His body. “The bread which we break,” asks St. Paul, “is it not the communion [the fellowship, the participation in] the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:17).

After supper He took the cup and said, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.” It is His blood which was poured out at the cross that cleanses us from all sin. Therefore He gives us the wine to pour His cleansing, life-giving blood into our souls. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion [the fellowship, the participation in] the blood of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16).

But having been cleansed by Him, and having received Him into ourselves, how should we then depart from His Table? Cleansed and Communed, we also are Commanded.

When supper was concluded, and when Judas had gone out to betray Him, Jesus turned to His disciples and enjoined upon them His New Commandment, His mandatum novum, from which we get our name for this night—Maundy Thursday. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:34-35).

You see, washed by the mercies of Christ in Baptism, cleansed by His loving touch in the Absolution, and having partaken of His self-giving sacrifice in the Holy Supper, we are to go from His Table filled with Him to love one another as He loved us. If we’ve truly been made one with Him, then His life will more and more be formed in us. We’ll do as He did; we’ll wash each other’s feet. We’ll forgive each other. We’ll touch each other where we’re dirty and hurting. We’ll serve each other. We’ll give up our wants and wishes for the sake our brothers and sisters. We’ll die to self that others might live.

You see, Cleansed, Communed, and Commanded: the whole life of the believer is summarized in the three acts of this very dramatic night—in those three acts of the Master towards his disciples. Therefore, as it is written, “Having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.” +